As the Panthers gear up to go for an unprecedented third straight Stanley Cup, the biggest question looming over the team as training camp starts centers on Matthew Tkachuk’s recovery from offseason surgeries on a torn hip abductor and sports hernia. Bill Zito offered an answer when asked about that as training camp opened, though it might not offer that much clarity on a return date.
Zito said he expects Tkachuk to be out until December-ish, “but don’t hold me to that”. Earlier in the day on WQAM, Paul Maurice said that Tkachuk would be out until “midseason”. Those aren’t necessarily different from each other, but shows that while the team has a general idea of when Tkachuk’s return range is, they don’t have any firm date at this time. Tkachuk was one of the first six players named to team USA’s Olympic roster, and so as long as his recovery goes well and is on schedule, he could be back before then. But for now, there still seems to be some considerable uncertainty on when Tkachuk will return from his offseason surgeries.
Additionally, Zito revealed a long term knee injury for center Tomas Nosek, who he said will be out “months for sure”. He suffered the injury during offseason training. With Nosek out, Luke Kunin and Tyler Motte, who is on a PTO, could be in contention among others to take over that fourth line center spot during his absence.
Courtesy of Litter Box Cats, the Panthers entire 72 man training camp roster can be seen here. They open their preseason Sunday in Nashville for a split squad doubleheader.